The election is almost here, so let's go for it and make it all politics as we "flASHback" on the week's news that amused and confused:

• John McCain and Barack Obama are softening their messages as they try to end the campaign on a positive note. McCain will chide Obama for palling around with columnists instead of terrorists, and Obama will call McCain a Bush clown instead of a clone.

• Politicians from Hawai'i and Illinois are still squabbling over which state has more of a claim to Obama. They should chill out over some Spam kielbasa already.

• After the national media descended on the Honolulu apartment building of Obama's grandmother during his visit, a bird bath and potted plant disappeared. Those better not show up in the White House press room.

• A Big Island genealogical firm traced Sarah Palin's family ties to Hawai'i. I didn't know Bullwinkle J. Moose was from here.

• Hawaiian families being evicted by the state from Kahana Valley wrote to Gov. Linda Lingle asking for help. They sent it general delivery to the McCain campaign plane.

• The city is dribbling out its environmental study of O'ahu rail transit over the weekend instead of rushing out the info as the election gets close. If the trains are as slow as the project's $2.6 million PR team, we're in big trouble.

• In their debate at the Hawai'i Theatre, Mayor Mufi Hannemann accused his opponent, Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, of "mixing manapua and malassada." Nobody heard what he said next because the audience went running to the snack bar.

• Asked to rate Lingle's performance as governor, Kobayashi gave her an "A" and Hannemann awarded a "B." The mayor graded her down for standing in his way to the U.S. Senate.

• Hawai'i's taxes on low-income families are among the harshest in the nation, a new study says. Well, the Legislature's 54 percent pay raise has to come from somewhere.

• House Speaker Calvin Say said the state won't give back the 10 percent it's skimming from the O'ahu transit tax and threatened to take 20 percent if the City Council keeps complaining. Next, he sends Marcus Oshiro to bust their knees.

And the quote of the week ... from Kaua'i mayoral candidate Bernard Carvalho after his opponent, JoAnn Yukimura, criticized the plan for a $125 million waste-to-energy plant: "We have a plan. When you have a plan, the idea is to follow through on the plan. If a plan is in place, we need to stick to the plan."

Don't get him started on Plan B.

David Shapiro can be reached at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his blog, Volcanic Ash, at www.HonoluluAdvertiser.com/Blogs.